U.S. patent application number 12/454503 was filed with the patent office on 2010-11-25 for two stroke touch panel data entry system.
Invention is credited to Jai Kumar, Kothandraman Ramchandran, Sudharshan Srinivasan.
Application Number | 20100295793 12/454503 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 43124273 |
Filed Date | 2010-11-25 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100295793 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Srinivasan; Sudharshan ; et
al. |
November 25, 2010 |
Two stroke touch panel data entry system
Abstract
A system of data entry on a surface coated with touch sensitive
material is provided. This surface is referred herein as touch
panel (36). This system is comprised of methods that use touch
movement recognition in one of two directions up (44) and down (43)
or left (54) and right (53). The touch movements are mapped to a
sequential list of basic elements of a language (31). Basic
elements can be alphabets (32), numerals (33), ideograms (34) and
words (35). Cancellation and selection commands are optionally
mapped to left (54) and right movements (53). Selected basic
elements are passed onto applications in context of data entry.
Inventors: |
Srinivasan; Sudharshan;
(Fremont, CA) ; Ramchandran; Kothandraman;
(Fremont, CA) ; Kumar; Jai; (Cupertino,
CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
SUDHARSHAN SRINIVASAN
5496 GOLUBIN COMMON
FREMONT
CA
94555
US
|
Family ID: |
43124273 |
Appl. No.: |
12/454503 |
Filed: |
May 19, 2009 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
345/173 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0488
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
345/173 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/041 20060101
G06F003/041 |
Claims
1. A data entry method for a surface coated with touch sensitive
material herein referred to as touch panel comprising: a) arranging
basic elements of any language in a sequential list with
orientation selected from group consisting of vertical orientation,
and horizontal orientation; b) associating said list with said
touch panel; c) associating a pair of directions of touch movement
further referred to as navigation directions, of a pointing
instrument of a user with corresponding two commands selected from
group consisting of navigate backward to said basic element
command, and navigate forward to said basic element command,
wherein said pair of directions is selected from group consisting
of up, down movement direction pair, and left, right movement
direction pair wherein said commands are further referred to as
navigation commands; d) bringing into contact said pointing
instrument with said touch panel to begin said navigation; e)
moving said pointing instrument in either direction in said pair of
directions to navigate to said desired basic element; and f)
releasing said contact at a certain point in said touch panel to
confirm selection of said basic element.
2. The method of data entry of claim 1, further comprising: a)
associating directions orthogonal to said navigation directions,
further referred to as selection directions, with corresponding two
commands selected from group consisting of select basic element
command, and cancel selection of basic element command, wherein
said commands are further referred to as selection commands.
3. The method of data entry of claim 1, further comprising: a)
associating plurality of consecutive movements in one of said
directions with commands other than said navigation and selection
commands.
4. The method of data entry of claim 1, wherein said basic element
is selected from group consisting of alphabet, numeral, ideogram,
and word.
5. The method of data entry of claim 1, further comprising: a)
associating rate of said touch movement with rate of navigation
between said basic elements in said list.
6. The method of data entry of claim 1, wherein said pointing
instrument is selected from group consisting of a finger of said
user, and a stylus.
7. The method of data entry of claim 6, further comprising: a)
identifying said finger of said user based on finger metrics
selected from group consisting of area of said touch, and pressure
of said touch area of said touch on said touch panel; and b)
associating said identified finger with subset of said basic
elements chosen from said list.
8. The method of data entry of claim 1, further comprising: a)
associating said navigation and select commands with feedback cues
to said user wherein said feedback cue is selected from group
consisting of audio feedback cue, visual feedback cue and vibration
feedback cue.
9. The method of data entry of claim 1, further comprising: a)
partitioning said touch panel into plurality of areas; and b)
associating said area with subset of said basic elements from said
list.
10. The method of data entry of claim 1, further comprising: a)
associating hardware buttons outside of said touch panel to
activate entry of said basic elements.
11. A device for data entry of basic elements of a language
comprising: a) a surface coated with touch sensitive material
herein referred to as touch panel; b) a software program to
recognize a pair of directions of movements further referred to as
navigation directions, by a user of a pointing instrument coupled
to said touch panel, said pair of directions selected from group
consisting of up, down movement direction pair and left, right
movement direction pair; c) said software program further
comprising association logic to associate said directions of
movements with corresponding commands selected from group
consisting of navigate backward to said basic element command, and
navigate forward to said basic element command said commands
further referred to as navigation commands.
12. The device of data entry of claim 11, further comprising: a) a
software program to recognize a pair of directions orthogonal to
said navigation directions, further referred to as selection
directions, with corresponding two commands selected from group
consisting of select basic element command, and cancel selection of
basic element command, wherein said commands are further referred
to as selection commands.
13. The device for data entry of claim 11, wherein said basic
element is selected from group consisting of alphabet, numeral,
ideogram, and word.
14. The device for data entry of claim 11, further comprising: a) a
software program that associates plurality of consecutive said
movements in one of said directions with commands other than said
navigate and select commands.
15. The device for data entry of claim 11, further comprising: a) a
software program that associates rate of said touch movement with
rate of navigation between said basic elements in said list.
16. The device for data entry of claim 11, wherein said pointing
instrument is selected from group consisting of a finger of said
user, and a stylus.
17. The device for data entry of claim 16, further comprising: a) a
software program that identifies said finger of said user based on
finger metrics selected from group consisting of area of said
touch, and pressure of said touch on said touch panel; and b) a
software program that associates said identified finger with subset
of said basic elements chosen from said list.
18. The device for data entry of claim 11, further comprising: a) a
software program that associates said navigation and select
commands with feedback cues to said user wherein said feedback cue
is selected from group consisting of audio feedback cue, visual
feedback cue and vibration feedback cue.
19. The device for data entry of claim 11, further comprising: a)
plurality of areas partitioned in said touch panel; and b) a
software program that associates said area with subset of said
basic elements.
20. The device for data entry of claim 11, further comprising: a) a
software program that associates hardware buttons outside of said
touch panel to activate entry of said basic elements.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] Not applicable
FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
[0002] Not applicable
SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM
[0003] Not applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0004] 1. Field of Invention
[0005] The present invention generally relates to data entry
methods and specifically to data entry methods using touch
recognition on surfaces with touch sensitive material referred
herein as touch panel.
[0006] 2. Prior Art
[0007] Touch panels are surfaces coated with layers of touch
sensitive material. These are often used in conjunction with
information displays or as alternates to mouse inputs. Touch panels
have a capability to detect human touch and transform the touch to
analog electronic signals. These analog signals are then converted
into digital signals to map the touch into two dimensional
coordinates referred herein as touch coordinates. These touch
coordinates are then passed to an application that can then respond
to a touch at a certain location of the touch panel.
[0008] Touch panels are used for data entry into a computing device
using several methods.
[0009] Touch panels are used as alternatives to a mouse when the
touch coordinates are associated with a cursor of a display. This
enables movement of a cursor without any restrictions to enable
interaction with software programs that are associated with data
being displayed in the display. This method of data entry is mostly
used for command processing and selection of objects represented as
graphical entities in a display.
[0010] Touch panels when directly overlaid onto a display eliminate
the need of a cursor. This enables data entry into a computing
device by touching the touch panel overlaid on the display at
appropriate locations without having to move a cursor to a specific
location. This method of data entry is also used for command
processing and selection of appropriate objects being
displayed.
[0011] Touch panels when used as display overlays and combined with
virtual keyboards that are drawn onto a display also enable data
entry such as numbers, alphabets and ideograms of any language.
This enables keyboard related data entry using a touch panel
without using a separate keyboard.
[0012] Touch panels are also used with hand writing recognition
software programs such that a user can enter data by writing
textual characters onto the touch panel overlaid display and let a
hand writing recognition software program translate the touch
signals into desired characters.
[0013] In all of the above methods of data entry or command entry
using a touch panel, a user needs to click on exact coordinates
that represent characters or other selectable items.
[0014] This is a big limitation if a user needs to enter data using
a touch panel that is too small to have sufficient area for each of
the characters, or a user is unable to maintain visual contact with
the display. This could occur in cases where a user is blind or is
not in a position to see the display without losing focus such as
when driving, or when trying to type a short message with a mobile
phone inside a pocket.
[0015] The purpose of this invention is to provide a data entry
system for touch panels however small the display size be and also
provide for users who are unable to maintain visual contact at all
times.
[0016] Data entry using a virtual keyboard drawn onto the display
is limiting since a user has to touch a precise coordinate
representing a character. This may not always be possible when a
user does not have visual contact with the display. Even in the
case of having visual contact, the virtual key size may be quite
small on small displays such as that of mobile phones, creating a
problem of multiple key presses instead of just one.
[0017] Data entry using hand writing recognition software program
is also limiting since hand writing is very user specific and each
user has a different style and variation of writing a character.
There is no hand writing recognition software program in state of
the art that can recognize all variations of characters written
with different styluses. This is due to the fact that the
combinations of attributes that lead to different styluses can be
infinite. Attributes such as height, slant, size, width and other
extensions can lead to infinite variations to write a single
character. As not all variations can be recognized, probability of
errors in hand writing recognition will always be greater than zero
implying that a user will need to look at the display to correct
any mistakes.
[0018] This problem of recognition of infinite variations of
characters by hand writing recognition software program was
addressed by a solution from a company by name Palm Incorporated.
Palm addressed this problem by introducing a method to enter a
restricted stroke character set and associated font renditions that
are easily recognized by a hand writing software program. This
method was called graffiti and was very popular in early days of
use. But this method also suffers from some of the problems that
are associated with a general purpose character recognition
program. For example a number six written using graffiti can be
easily mistaken for a letter O. Similarly a letter T written in
graffiti can be mistaken for a number one or seven. Hence, although
the probability of errors could be reduced, the probability of
errors still remained above zero and hence a user is forced to look
at the screen and correct any mistakes. This method also forces
people to learn a new style of hand writing that can align with the
hand writing recognition software program which is not the most
desired option.
[0019] It can be seen that none of the above mentioned data entry
methods using a touch panel display is suitable for a small display
such as a mobile phone display or suitable to a user who is unable
to maintain visual contact with the display.
[0020] Hence there is a need for a touch panel based data entry
method that reduces the probability of error of data entry to zero
however small the associated display size is.
[0021] Following paragraphs in current section describe relevant
prior art in this field.
[0022] Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 7,015,899 describes a data entry
system for small displays, where characters of a language are
organized into a two dimensional matrix and a cursor is used to
select a particular character. But this does not address the
requirement of using touch panel where a finger may overlay
multiple characters.
[0023] Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 6,882,337 describes a keyboard
layout for touch typing with audio cues. This prior art caters to
large displays and not small displays. Audio cues are used to aid
in figuring out if a touch is in within the bounds of a key or
outside. But this does not address the need for a touch pad data
entry system associated with small displays such as a mobile
phone.
[0024] Prior art US patent 20050240879 describes a touch panel data
entry where the characters are arranged in a text entry ring. But
if the display associated with touch panel is small, the ring can
be hard to navigate with a finger that can be quite wide. Hence
this is not suitable to address the needs of a small display. This
also cannot be used without user looking at the screen.
[0025] Another touch panel data entry system is described by google
eyesfree project. This particularly addresses the need for data
entry without having to maintain visual contact with the touch
panel and associated display. But this method uses several strokes
to get the appropriate characters in a language. For example
numbers are organized at ends of a rectangle and at mid points of a
rectangle sides. This gives rise to 8 different strokes. Also
English alphabet is partitioned into five groups of letters, and
each set is organized as separate rings, and each of these rings
are positioned around a bigger circle. Hence to reach a character,
a user has to first move in one of five directions, and then use a
circular pattern in clock wise or anticlockwise direction resulting
in about seven different strokes. In a small display organizing
letters in five circles is infeasible and making a user remember
which character exists in which circle is impractical. Hence such a
system can only be used with larger displays such as those
associated with smartphones and not those display that are present
in feature phones.
[0026] As can be seen from above, all known prior arts suffer from
some limitations in offering a solution to data entry using touch
panels associated with small displays and when a user is unable to
maintain visual contact with the touch panel and associated
display.
OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES
[0027] Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present
invention are: [0028] a) to provide a data entry system for touch
panels associated with small displays such as those in mobile
phones without the problem of multiple key presses; [0029] b) to
provide a data entry system for touch panel associated with
displays that do not require a user to maintain visual contact with
the display; [0030] c) to provide a data entry system for touch
panels that enables precise data entry without associating fixed
coordinates between a virtual key and touch panel; and [0031] d) to
provide a data entry system for touch panels that enables quick
user learning by using only two strokes of lines to get to a
character.
SUMMARY
[0032] In accordance with present invention, a data entry system
for touch panels is described that is a based on two stroke
character navigation method. The two strokes are achieved by using
a finger or a stylus on a touch panel in any location and moving
the finger in upwards or downwards direction to navigate to a
particular character, and then release at a position to make a
selection. Optionally a right stroke may also be used to confirm
selection and left stroke to reject the selection. Moving down
navigates in forward direction in a list of characters, and moving
up navigates in backward direction in a list of characters. The two
strokes may be vertical or horizontal and is configurable by a
user.
[0033] Characters are arranged in vertical orientation as a single
column from top to bottom or vice versa. Characters may also be
arranged in horizontal orientation from left to right or right to
left based on user preference. These orientations are further
referred to as vertical character list or horizontal character list
depending on vertical orientation and horizontal orientation of
characters.
[0034] This character arrangement is not fixed to any particular
coordinate of the touch panel and is not necessarily shown in the
touch panel or associated display, hence a user does not have to be
in visual contact with the touch panel. A user may touch any part
of a touch panel and move up or down to select a character.
Navigation between characters can be fast or slow depending on rate
of user movement of touch area. If a user moves the finger at a
slower rate then the characters navigated to are nearby characters,
and if the user moves the finger rapidly, then characters navigated
to are distant apart. If the user moves the finger in one of the
navigation directions and stops moving without removing the finger
from the touch panel, then the navigation could continue to
subsequent characters at the previous rate. This enables navigation
to characters without moving the finger across the entire touch
panel.
[0035] Feedback to user about the current position of the finger
representing a character is provided either using visual cues
and/or audio cues. A visual cue may be provided to a user if the
touch panel is associated with a display. A user, who is unable to
maintain visual contact with touch panel, or an optionally
associated display, will be provided with audio cues representing
the current position of navigation.
[0036] To reduce the length of the vertical or horizontal character
list, the character list may be split up into two columns one for
representing a number list and one for alphabet list. Finger
pressure and touch area of each finger may also be used to
partition a large list. Finger pressure and touch area maybe used
to split the character list into a number list and a character
list. A finger with larger touch area may represent a character
list and another finger with a smaller touch area may be used for a
number list.
[0037] Since a character is not fixed to any coordinate of touch
panel, the problem of multiple key presses will not occur however
small the touch panel and associated display is. Since motion
recognition is limited to two strokes, the likelihood of errors is
reduced to zero as the number of combinations of strokes to
recognize is finite and hence easily computable unlike infinite
variations of character entry to be processed by the generic hand
writing recognition software program.
[0038] Providing audio cues in combination with two stroke
character navigation method enables use of this data entry method
without the need to maintain visual contact with touch panel and
associated display.
[0039] Hence, using the two strokes character navigation method in
combination with audio cues provides an unobvious result of
enabling data entry into mobile device touch panels associated with
small displays, and also provides an advantage of entering data
without maintaining visual contact with touch panel and associated
display.
DRAWINGS--FIGURES
[0040] FIG. 1 shows basic elements of a language.
[0041] FIG. 2 shows the high level architecture of touch panel data
entry system.
[0042] FIG. 3 shows typical stroke on touch panel according to this
invention.
[0043] FIG. 4 shows basic operation of two stroke touch panel data
entry system.
[0044] FIG. 5 shows two stroke operation with optional select
election and cancel strokes.
[0045] FIG. 6 shows details of multiple stroke operation for
character selection.
[0046] FIG. 7 shows multiple regions support.
[0047] FIG. 8 show two finger operation.
DRAWINGS--REFERENCE NUMERALS
[0048] 31 basic element of language
[0049] 32 alphabet or character
[0050] 33 numeral
[0051] 34 ideogram
[0052] 35 word
[0053] 36 Liquid crystal display (LCD) with touch panel
[0054] 37 LCD driver
[0055] 38 touch sensor
[0056] 39 Touch sense processor
[0057] 40 Application processor
[0058] 41 speaker
[0059] 42 vibration transducer
[0060] 43 down stroke
[0061] 44 up stroke
[0062] 45 finger stroke
[0063] 46 finger touch
[0064] 47 finger drag
[0065] 48 finger release
[0066] 49 drag down
[0067] 50 drag up
[0068] 51 element list of alphabets
[0069] 52 element list of numbers
[0070] 53 right stroke
[0071] 54 left stroke
[0072] 55 Mobile phone touch panel
[0073] 56 down stroke one
[0074] 57 down stroke two
[0075] 58 region one
[0076] 59 region two
[0077] 60 Region one up stroke
[0078] 61 region one down stroke
[0079] 62 region two down stroke
[0080] 63 region two up stroke
[0081] 64 external keypad key
[0082] 65 Two finger up stroke
[0083] 66 two finger down stroke
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0084] In the descriptions below, first, basic elements of language
are described followed by high level architecture of two stroke
character navigation and corresponding data entry are described.
Basic elements of a language are arranged into a sequential list
with vertical or horizontal orientation. A touch stroke is used to
navigate to a basic element of a language. Touch strokes are
organized into pairs of stroke directions corresponding to
orientations of basic elements. If basic elements are organized
into a vertical orientation, then touch strokes are organized into
up, down direction movement pair. If basic elements are organized
into a horizontal orientation, then touch strokes are organized
into left, right direction movement pair.
[0085] FIG. 1 shows basic element of language 31 that can be one of
alphabet or character 32, numeral 33, ideogram 34, and word 35. In
further description below, a character is used to represent basic
element 31.
[0086] FIG. 2 shows the high level architecture of two stroke touch
panel data entry system, the object of present invention. Liquid
crystal display (LCD) with touch panel 36 contains LCD driver 37
and touch sensor 38. Finger touches or stylus taps on LCD with
touch panel 36 are recognized by touch sensor 38, which converts
touches or taps to analog signals. Touch sense processor 39
receives analog signal generated by touch sensor 38 and converts to
digital signal representing X for horizontal and Y for vertical
coordinates. Application processor 40 receives X and Y coordinates
from touch sense processor 39 and based on received X and Y
coordinates, generates one of audio, visual and vibration cues to
aid two stroke character navigation. The coordinates can represent
a single point or area of touch. Audio cue generated by application
processor 40 is sent to speaker 41, visual cues are sent to LCD
driver 37 to be displayed in LCD with touch panel 36 and vibration
cues are sent to vibration transducer 42.
[0087] Audio cues are customizable by users. Audio cues can be
provided with male or female voice and user recorded voice with
customizable pitch, amplitude, language, speed and tempo. Vibration
cues can present vibrations with multiple frequencies representing
begin, end and mid points of a character set. Touch panel data
entry system can be operated using finger touch or stylus tap. In
the descriptions below, finger touch method shall represent either
form of touch panel data entry operation.
[0088] FIG. 3 shows a down stroke 43 on touch panel which is one of
the two strokes of present invention. The corresponding stroke to a
down stroke is an up stroke 44. A user can configure the two
strokes in either vertical or horizontal orientations. If
configured for horizontal orientation, the two strokes used would
be in leftward and rightward directions. A finger stroke 45 is
defined as finger touch 46 which is followed by finger drag 47 and
finally by a finger release 48 on LCD touch panel 36. Finger
strokes 45 are used for data entry and character navigation. Finger
drag 47 can be drag down 49 with corresponding stroke being drag up
50.
[0089] The speed of finger drag determines how quickly character
navigation is performed. The speed of finger drag enables
characters to be skipped to speed up navigation and is user
customizable for ease of use. Also according to this invention,
touch panel data entry system provides audio, visual and vibration
cues during navigation.
[0090] FIG. 4 shows two stroke touch panel data entry system for
vertical orientation of basic elements. Up stroke 44 navigates
between elements of basic element list in reverse order. As an
example, in this figure, basic element list is made up of alphabets
in English language and numbers. The element list of alphabets 51
are arranged in sequential order in vertical orientation beginning
with alphabet A at the top of the list and ending in alphabet Z at
the bottom. The element list of numbers 52 are arranged in
sequential order in vertical orientation beginning with number 0 at
the top of the list and ending in number 9 at the bottom.
[0091] In order to choose a specific alphabet, user begins
navigation at any point on the touch panel by touching and dragging
a pointing instrument such as a finger in either upward or downward
direction until one of an audio, visual, and vibration cue is
perceived by the user. As soon as the user perceives one of the
above mentioned cues for the desired alphabet, user removes the
finger from touch panel indicating a selection. Optionally, a
selection may be indicated by a right stroke 53 after perceiving
the cue for desired alphabet. If after selection, a user desires to
cancel the selection, user touches the screen and moves the finger
in the opposite direction to the direction originally used for
desired selection within a configurable amount of time referred to
as cancellation time. Optionally, a selection may be cancelled by a
left stroke 54 within the cancellation time. Navigation between
characters may be speeded up using a faster stroke in the desired
direction. The screen size determines how far apart the alphabets
are placed within an alphabet list which can be configurable based
on user preferences.
[0092] Multiple lists representing alphabets, words or numerals may
be associated with different fingers of a user. Each finger may be
identified using area of touch of a finger or pressure used in the
touch and corresponding list may be instantiated. The list of words
may also be used to implement a menu subsystem of an application
that may include keyboard accelerators to instantiate application
functionality with fewest character selections needed. Double
select on same character is permitted and may initiate keyboard
accelerator. For example, character E may be navigated to, and
another click at approximately the same location may invoke a
keyboard accelerator command. Character E may be mapped to brining
up an email application. Such a double select may also be
implemented using two right strokes 53, one to select desired
character and another to invoke a keyboard accelerator command.
[0093] In case of small displays, a single stroke in an upward or
downward direction may not be sufficient to represent all
characters in a language. In such cases, a user has an option to
break the stroke after reaching the boundary of the touch panel in
one direction and continuing the stroke from the opposite end
within a configurable amount of time to navigate further into the
desired list. For example, small display of a low end phone with
touch panel may enable representing characters from A to O in
vertical orientation. In such a case, if a user wants to navigate
to a letter that is beyond O, will first navigate from top to
bottom of touch panel using one stroke and will the use a second
stroke from the top of the touch panel to navigate to the desired
character.
[0094] If a user navigates past a desired character, user reverses
the direction of motion to get back to the desired character
optionally controlling the speed of motion. In addition, autofill
capabilities may be implemented using word complete algorithms.
[0095] FIG. 5 shows two stroke touch panel data entry system for
vertical orientation of basic elements along with optional right
stroke 53 for selecting an entry and left stroke 54 for cancelling
a selection.
[0096] FIG. 6 shows details of multiple stroke operation for
character selection. In one of the embodiment of this invention,
touch panel data entry system is used in a mobile phone
environment. Mobile phone touch panel 55 is typically small and may
not have sufficient length to support touch panel data entry
character navigation when there are numerous characters involved,
say for example English language alphabet. Mobile phone touch panel
55 length limitation can be overcome by supporting multiple strokes
to navigate large character set. If user is trying to enter
character M and starts off by initiating down stroke one 56, touch
panel data entry system is able to navigate up to say character K
at the completion of down stroke one 56. In order to enter
character M, user starts another stroke within a time period by
initiating down stroke two 57, indicating the continuation of
character entry operation. During execution of down stroke two 57,
touch panel data entry system starts navigating from character L
and hence user is able to reach character M to complete character
entry.
[0097] FIG. 7 shows multiple regions support. In one embodiment of
this invention, multiple regions are supported to enable touch
panel data entry. LCD with touch panel 36 is divided into region
one 58 and region two 59. Region one 58 may be assigned to English
alphabet character set whereas region two 59 may be assigned to
numerals. Region one up stroke 60 and region one down stroke 61 are
used to enter English alphabet character where as region two down
stroke 62 and region two up stroke 63 are used to enter numerals.
Assignment of region one 58 and region two 59 may fixed or can be
changed dynamically by using an external keypad key 64 by the
user.
[0098] FIG. 8 shows two finger operation. Two finger up stroke 65
and two finger down stroke 66 operation can also be supported for
data entry along with down stroke 43 and up stroke 44 using one
finger. Two finger operation may be used to enter numerals whereas
one finger operation may be used for entering characters. This
provides additional convenience to users while entering characters
and numbers during data entry.
ADVANTAGES
[0099] From the description above a number of advantages of this
wireless system become evident: [0100] a) a data entry system for
touch panel based displays is provided that does not require a user
to maintain visual contact with the display; [0101] b) a data entry
system for touch panels is provided that enables precise data entry
without associating fixed coordinates between a virtual key and
touch panel; [0102] c) a data entry system for touch panels is
provided that enables quick user learning by using only two strokes
of lines to get to a character; and [0103] d) a data entry system
for touch panels is provided in portable devices such as mobile
phones that enables use of small screen display associated touch
panels to enter data without the problem of multiple key
presses.
CONCLUSIONS, RAMIFICATIONS AND SCOPE
[0104] Accordingly, the reader will see that the data entry system
of present invention providing a two stroke character navigation
and data entry method, will enable data entry into touch panels
associated with small displays without the necessity of maintaining
visual contact.
[0105] Although the description above contains many specificities,
these should not be construed as limiting the scope of invention
but merely as providing illustrations of some of the presently
preferred embodiments of this invention. Thus the scope of this
invention should be determined by appended claims and their legal
equivalents, rather than by example given.
* * * * *